Particles co-orbital to Janus and Epimetheus: a firefly planetary ring

The Cassini spacecraft found a new and unique ring that shares the trajectory of Janus and Epimetheus, co-orbital satellites of Saturn. Performing image analysis, we found this to be a continuous ring. Its width is between 30% and 50% larger than previously announced. We also verified that the ring...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2018-01
Main Authors: Winter, Othon C, Souza, Alexandre P S, Sfair, Rafael, Giuliatti Winter, Silvia M, Mourão, Daniela C, yta, Dietmar W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Angles (geometry)
Cassini mission
Computer simulation
Epimetheus
Fireflies
Image analysis
Janus
Mathematical models
Micrometeorites
Nanoparticles
Planetary rings
Satellite imagery
Saturn
Saturn satellites
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Summary:The Cassini spacecraft found a new and unique ring that shares the trajectory of Janus and Epimetheus, co-orbital satellites of Saturn. Performing image analysis, we found this to be a continuous ring. Its width is between 30% and 50% larger than previously announced. We also verified that the ring behaves like a firefly. It can only be seen from time to time, when Cassini, the ring and the Sun are arranged in a particular geometric configuration, in very high phase angles. Otherwise, it remains "in the dark", not visible to Cassini's cameras. Through numerical simulations, we found a very short lifetime for the ring particles, less than a couple of decades. Consequently, the ring needs to be constantly replenished. Using a model of particles production due to micrometeorites impacts on the surfaces of Janus and Epimetheus, we reproduce the ring, explaining its existence and the "firefly" behavior.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1801.01909